I've been using Ubuntu One for the last year or two to sync/backup specific important files and folders on my computer. Rather than just using it like "Dropbox" (i.e., putting files I want to sync in the specific "ubuntu one" folder), I am taking advantage of the total integration of Ubuntu One to sync the folders as they exist in my file tree. Recently, I decided that I needed to better organize that filetree (I'm a professor and a researcher, so I accrue a lot of files), including renaming and reorganizing many of the files/folders that I've been syncing to Ubuntu One. My question is this: what happens to the "old" versions of all these renamed files/folders up in the cloud? I know Ubuntu One keeps versioned editions of each file, and only keeps the changed parts in order to save space. But if I renamed the folder, and then re-synced it, I'm assuming that a brand new file is created, which is a complete duplicate of the old file. I checked the "Cloud Folders" tab in the Ubuntu One preferences dialog, and it does appear that every single one of my "old" fodlers/files is still there, but not actively being synced any more. Am I right to assume that these are taking up extra space in my Ubuntu One account? That these are, in fact, full duplicates of the "new" files?

My main question here is: Can I safely delete these once the "new" organization of my file tree has completely synced? I realize that I will loose the versioning saved by Ubuntu One in these "old" files, but I am sure that I don't need that info anymore (everything is exactly up to date). If this is okay, how, exactly can I remove these old versions? There does not seem to be a way to "delete" them from the Ubuntu One preferences dialog.

Just adding this comment to say that my main concern is to be able to stay within my storage quota. I don't want superfluous duplicates taking up a ton of space that I could be using to back up other files....
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Isaac UllahSep 19 '12 at 16:33

1 Answer
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I 'm not sure to correctly understand your question. If you rename a file or folder you have only this one and not also the older one. So I assume that you have made a copy of your folder tree. In this case you have a double of your files that use a double of the U1 space. So I think that you have to simply delete the older version.

Yes, I just renamed the file/folder on my own computer, but I wonder what happens up on the Ubuntu One cloud with the file? When I rename something, it automatically un-syncs it from Ubuntu One, and I have to manually re-sync it. I am assuming that now that means there are TWO copies of the same file up on the Ubuntu One cloud: one with the old name, and one with new name. Is that true? If so, HOW do I go about deleting the old version up there on the cloud?
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Isaac UllahSep 24 '12 at 18:12